A useless gesture:

India has served Pakistan with a demand to hand over 20 of its most feared criminals and militants, seeking co-operation with its neighbour rather than military confrontation in response to last weekÂ’s attacks on Mumbai.

Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign minister, said on Tuesday: “We have asked for the arrest and handover of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and who are fugitives of Indian law.

“Nobody is talking of military action [against Pakistan],” he said of the threat of a rapid deterioration of relations between the two nuclear armed rivals.

The comments were made ahead of a visit by Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, to New Delhi on Wednesday. Western diplomats believe Ms RiceÂ’s meetings with senior Indian government figures will be far from easy.

One question that Indian leaders may well raise with Ms Rice is why the US expects India to take a measured and controlled response to the Mumbai attacks, given the US has had a policy for some time of launching direct military strikes against core members of al-Qaeda in PakistanÂ’s tribal areas.

...

The list includes Dawood Ibrahim, a formidable underworld don held responsible for the 1993 bomb attack on Mumbai; Masood Azhar, leader of a group suspected of attacking the Indian parliament in 2001; and Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, a university professor who founded Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Posted by: Ace at 10:19 AM | Comments (25)
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Smug self-righteousness? Check.

Cartoonish representations of religious people? Check.

Proposition 8 opponents exhibiting behavior they criticize? Check.

Margaret Cho? Check.

This is really not the way to win friends and influence people, and as Jonah Goldberg points out, their outrage seems a bit selective.

Interesting [Ace]: Given the choice between attempting to persuade those who oppose gay marriage or mocking them so as to harden their opposition, the left chooses mockery. If striking poses of condescending superiority is counterproductive, so be it. They're in this for the poses of condescending superiority, after all, not to actually win on their issues.

Posted by: Slublog at 09:04 AM | Comments (103)
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This story has been brewing for a couple of weeks in Kentucky. Here's the summary.

In 2006, the Kentucky legislature created the state Office of Homeland Security. The legislature described one of its duties as "stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth." The Office of Homeland Security must publicize God's protection in its reports and post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, "The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God."

Is there anyone who wants to argue that this isn't a violation of the Establishment Clause? Do you think the Kentucky legislature simply didn't know that requiring a state agency to spread the word that God is protecting us from terrorism is patently unconstitutional?

A group of atheists is suing (second link above) and they have a good point. Now if only they had learned that hysteria and name-calling is not very attractive:

In the suit, American Atheists argues that Homeland Security should focus on public-safety threats rather than promote religion. The suit notes that the federal and state homeland security agencies were created as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by Muslim fundamentalists, and it refers to those attacks as "a faith-based initiative."

The plaintiffs ask for the homeland security law to be stripped of its references to God. They also ask for monetary damages, claiming to have suffered sleeping disorders and "mental pain and anguish."

"Plaintiffs also suffer anxiety from the belief that the existence of these unconstitutional laws suggest that their very safety as residents of Kentucky may be in the hands of fanatics, traitors or fools," according to the suit.

Classless again. But, please, don't let that stop you from making a scene.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:22 AM | Comments (116)
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Senator Jim DeMint, August 28, 2008:

Americans are sick and tired of wasteful government spending. While they struggle to meet rising energy costs and still putting food on the table, their government appears to give little thought to what runaway spending today means for outlook of tomorrow. They, as well as their posterity, deserve better.

Changes were still taking place even as the opening approached. Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, balked at the budget because he said the center's exhibits ignored the nation's religious heritage.

To avoid further delays, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and top Republican Robert Bennett of Utah agreed in principle to several changes, including engraving "In God We Trust" in stone in a prominent place. The cost: an additional $150,000.

Someone remind me...which party used to be known for its fiscal conservatism?

Welcome - Hot Air readers.

I am aware that Jim DeMint is a fine senator and a good conservative and that he did not specifically request the money. However, he did threaten to delay the opening unless changes were made to the exhibits, presumably knowing that such changes would add to the already-ridiculous cost of the project.

I'm glad he doesn't ask for earmarks, but it's still disappointing to see fiscal conservatives take action that causes my money to be spent, regardless of how noble the cause. I like how adamthemad puts it in the comments:

$150k isn't even a line item in the budget for sure, but that's no excuse for being wasteful. A smaller government doesn't spontaneously happen and making excuses for stupid spending will only ensure it doesn't. Everybody's got their pet project, everybody can find something they find worthy of largess.

Posted by: Slublog at 05:04 AM | Comments (46)
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This is a clever idea, though obviously not a real solution for spending cuts (no scalability). I'm more amused to see someone waste their life fighting "commercialization":

[W]hen administrators at Rancho Bernardo, his suburban San Diego high school, announced the district was cutting spending on supplies by nearly a third, [Tom] Farber had a problem. At 3 cents a page, his tests would cost more than $500 a year. His copying budget: $316. But he wanted to give students enough practice for the big tests they'll face in the spring, such as the Advanced Placement exam.

"Tough times call for tough actions," he says. So he started selling ads on his test papers: $10 for a quiz, $20 for a chapter test, $30 for a semester final.

That worries Robert Weissman, managing director of Commercial Alert, a Washington-based non-profit that fights commercialization in school and elsewhere. If test-papers-as-billboards catches on, he says, schools in the grip of tough economic times could start relying on them to help the bottom line.

"The advertisers are paying for something, and it's access to kids," he says.

Most of the ads come from parents sending messages to their children, though a few local businesses have bought space. To be honest, I wouldn't be opposed if Pepsi Co. wanted to put an ad on some tests (nor would I oppose a Time Warner Cable Residential Hall at a university looking for help raising money to build new dorms).

As an added bonus Mr. Weissman, and people like him, would worry their little heads off. If you want a laugh or two, check out Commercial Alert's website. His "commercialization" scare is a whole lot of Lefty bugaboos rolled into one.

First, they emphasize restricting speech in the name of "the children." Actually they insist that corporations do not have or should not have speech rights, which is typical leftist ignorance about what a corporation is. A corporation is composed of nothing except people---the owners, managers, and employees---all of whom have speech rights. Restrictions on so-called "commercial" speech have traditionally been too harsh, though that is changing.

Second, they claim that the act of selling a good or service is destroying our cultural values. This is routinely recast as "exploitation" of someone or something (often Mother Earth is assigned the role of the victim) and is part of the leftist's retro dislike for capitalism. And I mean retro as in, if your particular belief system was discredited before I was even born it's time to limp off to the trash-heap of history. Let it go, fella.

In fact, their heads would probably explode if they were told that the act of buying and selling, yes, including putting a price on something and then advertising it, has probably saved more lives and increased the quality of life for more people than any other activity in history. The fact that Rob Weissman is still walking and talking and wasting breath telling USA Today that he's "worried" tells me that he simply hasn't been paying attention. That he was educated at Harvard (twice!) is evidence, I hope, of his failure at life, and not the school's failure at education.

Third, and this will be very familiar for anyone else who has recently picked up Goldberg's book, they are motivated by the idea of a "public good" that must be protected from greedy profiteers. But they can't seem to come up with a definition of "public good" that doesn't require me to give up rights (usually to property and speech), which makes me not like the idea of "public good" so much.

I tend to think that what's good for me is very often also good for my neighbors; and what's good for my neighborhood is often good for my city; etc. But we didn't need someone to come point out the "public good" before we figured out that peaceful coexistance is a pleasant way to live. The pubic good, as sought by the Rob Weissmans of the world, is simply another imposition. The key feature for Commercial Alert is that the public good isn't concerned with anything so ignoble as making a living.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:03 AM | Comments (17)
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Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 04:53 AM | Comments (8)
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This story is a day old, I think, but here's an update. The First Lady has decided that the "Impeach Bush" Christmas ornament will not be hanging on the White House Christmas tree:

Laura Bush asked all members of Congress to pick artists from their districts to decorate ornaments, presumably highlighting local landmarks and heroes. Lawrence, 55, used the opportunity to honor McDermott, a strong critic of Bush. The collage artist glued tiny text on the nine-inch ball thinking no one would actually read her embedded "subversive" message.

But Lawrence shared her secret protest with friends, and the news quickly spread. "An artist doesn't always get this kind of attention," she told us. "It took on a life of its own, obviously. In a way, I'm speechless."

Sally McDonough, a spokeswoman for the first lady, confirmed the ornament would not be displayed. "It's inappropriate and it's not being hung," she said.

This post was almost headlined: "Collage Artist Unclear on the Concept of 'Secret'". So I'm going to explain it to her. Y'see, Debbie, when you write a message in English, many people who are literate in the English language will read it. And they will understand it. And then it won't be a secret any more. Did I go too fast? Lemme try again. Debbie, when you tell your friends a secret, it ain't secret any more. Probably too tough of a concept for a "collage artist."

Oh. And for the late-night crowd who absolutely must have a thread actually labeled "Overnight Thread" instead of simply gathering in whichever of the many threads we've left lying around that you find most handy, you may consider this the overnight thread.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 09:22 PM | Comments (54)
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Three quarters of a kg.

Researchers say they have located the world's oldest stash of marijuana, in a tomb in a remote part of China.

The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly ``cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.

The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China.

The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour.

"To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo.

Also found: the oldest known hacky sack and oldest known Steven Wright comedy album.

Posted by: Ace at 08:28 PM | Comments (92)
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I love hockey. A lot. But I have to say this story disgusts me.

Sean Avery was suspended indefinitely by the NHL on Tuesday, hours after the Dallas Stars forward made a crude reference to former girlfriends while talking with reporters.

Avery's inflammatory comments came following a morning skate in Calgary, Alberta, where the Stars were to play the Flames on Tuesday night. Reporters were waiting to speak with him about disparaging remarks he'd made last month about Flames star Jarome Iginla when Avery walked over to the group and asked if there was a camera present. When told there was, he said, "I'm just going to say one thing."

"I'm really happy to be back in Calgary; I love Canada," he said. "I just want to comment on how it's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds. I don't know what that's about, but enjoy the game tonight."

He then walked out of the locker room.

Avery's ex-girlfriend, actress Elisha Cuthbert of the television show "24" and the movie "Old School," is dating Calgary defenseman Dion Phaneuf; she had been romantically linked to Mike Komisarek of the Montreal Canadiens. Avery also dated Rachel Hunter, the former "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit cover model and actress who is now the girlfriend of Los Angeles Kings center Jarrett Stoll.

That can get you suspended in the NHL now? It's not like Avery shot someone or himself. He didn't take any performance enhancing drugs. If Avery was going to be suspended for anything it should be his odd fixation with women's fashion but mouthing off about your ex-girlfriend dating an opponent?

If Bobby Clarke and Essa Tikkanen were dead they'd be spinning in their graves.

Below the fold, a tribute to the Old Time Hockey we knew and loved. May it rest in peace. more...

Posted by: DrewM at 06:35 PM | Comments (78)
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Thank goodness.

With the filibuster-proof majority now out of reach, hopefully there is less temptation for Harry Reid and his gang of criminals to vote Franken into office despite, you know, losing the election and everything.

Posted by: Ace at 05:01 PM | Comments (111)
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